Thursday, November 27, 2014

Liar Game Drama Review

Season two! Season two!

Seriously though, I think that I aged ten years for each of the last two episodes I was so stressed out the whole time and then it had this wonderful open ending. It wasn't annoying open though like some other dramas that I could mention

*coughcoughGuFamilyBookcoughcoughSurplusPrincesscoughcough*

Sorry, one of my students must have given me a winter cold that somehow onomatopoeiaed itself onto my screen. I'll try to keep that under control in the future.

I can't believe that I wasn't even going to watch this drama! I didn't know what it was about and just from seeing the poster I wasn't terribly interested. So, thank you Drama Beans for writing recaps so I can look into something before I actually decide to watch dramas. It actually reminded me of White Christmas at times. They are both about people reacting to other people and to what extent they would go to keep themselves safe and at the top of the pyramid.

From start to finish I was so invested in this drama. Sometimes when I am watching a drama I will play on my phone and pay half attention. It's not that I speak Korean, but I understand a small amount and most dramas have the same basic formula so I can usually keep up. Not this time. I got on my phone a few times and that ended very quickly because this drama just sucked me in and I had to make sure that I was paying attention so that I could follow how each game ran and who was on which team, or who was pretending to be on which team.

That being said, if there was one thing that could have maybe be done better was the games. Of, course it could have been translation issues (it probably was) but once or twice I had to really sit and think about what was happening with the games and what the rules were.

Something that I am glad that this drama did was not go super heavy on the romance. There wasn't really any romance at all, just light affection that has the potential to become a relationship. I'm not going to say that I'm not sad that there wasn't any heavier romance though. With a drama all about trusting each other we can't just have the most untrusting people just jump into a relationship; that would not follow the rules of the drama. It would also be very out of character for Woo Jin.

By the end of the drama our two main characters had grown a lot, and not even them, but all the side characters had good character growth and happy endings. This drama really didn't waste any time of stories. Everything and everyone was important to the story and it's progression. If there was a season two, I wouldn't be surprised Most prominent in my mind if Jamie's character. She could easily have been thrown under the bus and made this horrible person, but to our surprise (and her's) she became a good person and I loved the ending that she received. I won't spoil what it is, but it was something that I had been hoping for for a couple of episodes.

Another amazing character was Kang Do Young. Like, whoa. That is how you write a villain. He was super evil but he was also tragic and a tragic villain is my favorite kind of villain. Not that what a tragic villain does is ever okay, but to be able to see how their mind works and figure out the reasoning behind their twisted actions is amazing.

That was the case for a lot of the characters. What I said at the beginning about seeing these characters make choices that benefited themselves or others was kind of fascinating. Those choices weren't always selfish either, even if they weren't necessarily good choices. When you put people into the situations you can really see who they are at their core and that is one thing that made this drama so good. You were guessing the whole time, trying to figure out the connections and who was going to betray who and why.

I would definitely recommend this drama to people and I am holding onto the small shred of hope that because tvN has the rights to season two, that they will do it. Maybe we can get a little romance then since Da Jung and Woo Jin already have that trust built between them. Make it happen!

I saved some spoilers at the end so if you haven't watched the drama, you're done! Have a great day!

At the end when it was just Do Young, Woo Jin, and Da Jung caused me so much stress. I didn't know what was going to happen and then they threw a live bullet in the mix I might have hid in my blanket. Or as much as one can hide when one is trying to read subtitles. The way the final game was done became a sick shadow of what they did when they were young around the well when they were children and that was great. It pulled everything together which also gave those flashbacks that much more impact.

Then, that ending! First of all, Do Young is so scary! His battered face and the crazy eyes with the equally crazy laughter is nightmare material! I also wonder what the "real Liar Game" is. He said that the game is over and now we really begin. Begin what? Who are all of these people? What is Do Young's plan for Da Jung and Woo Jin?

Most importantly of all to me is that Sung Joon didn't die in the elevator! I was slightly distraught at the end of episode 10 but I decided that because he was kind of an important character that maybe he wasn't dead because if he was, I wanted to believe that the writers would give him a better send off. It could also stem from my firm belief that the House isn't dead in A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't care what anyone says, he is alive until I see a body.

And now, good bye to the rest of the readers. I hope you also have a good day and remember to trust those around you but also be wary of giant sketch balls. Make good choices!